To all of our wonderful TIS supporters,
Do you feel a little anxious? About prices at the grocery store…about how few housing opportunities are available and how expensive those are…about political uncertainties…about the divisiveness in our community, our nation, our world home? Can you for one minute put yourself in someone’s shoes who is struggling ‘just’ to find shelter? Think about the effort and energy it takes just to rise and face another day of unending challenges and to be invisible to almost everyone you see on the street?
We at TIS see this heightened anxiety in each and every human being who seeks our assistance to get back on track. No matter what their age, ethnic background, color of their skin, gender orientation, TIS is here to help. We have a history of identifying needs as they arise, and then creating or tweaking an existing program to address it. This takes staff and money, and quite honestly, we’ve seen a great falling off of giving since this time last year. We are not the only ones…every non-profit we are associated with is experiencing the same thing, so clearly even ourvgenerous community is feeling uneasy.
It has always been my passion to help those who are marginalized and traumatized by their situations that are not of their own making. I just read a statistic today that 67% of people experiencing homelessness have been victims of child abuse. Trauma transforms the brain, and not in a good way.
We spend a lot of effort in trying to understand how the brain is affected by trauma and offering some coping mechanisms that may help. We’ve hired specialists in the mental health field, and are working on bringing in meditation and other coping mechanisms. We need your help to make this happen. Talbot Interfaith Shelter (TIS) would not exist if it weren’t for our amazingly compassionate and generous donors. We continue to grow our S4 Program, both in the capacity of more people served, and in putting more educational offerings in place. We want our guests to succeed, but we are unable to grow unless we have a strong commitment from our supporters.
Please, even if it’s a $10 per month online donation, or whatever you can afford…it truly means LIFE to our guests. Food and shelter are the most basic and most important things for a human body, and TIS provides that. Compassion, understanding, education, and awareness are what we try to bring to our guests, our volunteers, our staff, and our donors, and we need your help to do that.
YOU can bring positive change to many of our neighbors’ lives, and I just cannot think of anything more rewarding than that!
With Much Gratitude,
Julie Lowe, TIS Executive Director